Since the April, 2009 publication of VICTORY POINT I've received over a thousand notes about Victory Point, virtually all of them positive, noting the book's accuracy, depth of research, and comprehensiveness. I have, however, received a small handful of negative messages, and in all fairness I think I should do my best to ensure that negative sentiments are made available to those who might be interested. Below are three (out of five total); the first two are from the same person, who posted in a public venue (youtube comments), and the third was also posted to a public venue (VICTORY POINT discussion board).

Those who raise issue with VICTORY POINT discount that it is a book about ultimate United States and Coalition military victory, and focus on a very narrow band of the story's overall spectrum: the number of ACM (anticoalition militia, "Taliban") during the ambush of the SEAL team in Red Wings. In VICTORY POINT I discuss how Marcus Luttrell's after action stated that they were ambushed by 20-35 ACM, and that further analysis (including of not one, but two videos made by Ahmad Shah) revealed something on the order of 8 to 10. But even without the videos, the military established the number at 8 to 10--based on analysis of a type of signals intelligence gathering during and immediately after the ambush, as well as human intelligence gathered in Pakistan. I don't discuss in detail this intel, because it is sensitive (the way the signals intelligence was gathered), and also, with regard to the human intelligence gathered in Pakistan, the collections involved special operations units. Nevertheless, some out there really apparently want to believe that the four went up against a force of hundreds, as has been exaggerated by some writers. Makes for great lore, and for typical military action movie scripts, but just isn't accurate.

Below is a message from "PriestHolmess" in a posting to the VICTORY POINT video on youtube.

Hate to tell ya but YOUR FULL OF SHIT making such bold claims that only 8-12 men ambushed SEAL Team 10. Luttrell stated the number & i hate to tell ya home slice but your precious Marines were nowhere to be found until later. Congrats on writing your book that basically is full of b/s facts. Yea lets write a different story to make a quick buck. Fucking clown. Its beyond disrespectful to the men who died in that fight & on the rescue attempt. Do me a favor and go brush your teeth with a pistol.

"PriestHolmess" then went ahead and posted another comment, this one to the profile page for the book's video.

Bullshit pal...Luttrel talked on the numbers they faced. You were not there so do me a favor and go eat a bowl of dicks. 3 Navy SEALS died that day along with countless others that come to rescue them. 8-12 terriost could not have unleashed that type of attack sorry idiot. So the jest of this book is to talk big bad shit about how bad ass you are your buddies were right? How you guys came in and saved the fucking day after the fight? Sorry pal thats not the case. Im going to believe Mr. Luttrel before i believe a parasite like yourself. Your book gets a big fuck you. To Say Mr. Murphy tried to call in for help against a few bad guys is insane. The SEAL rescue team & Pj's that went to rescue Luttrel fought hard and encountered a lot more then 8-12. Your nothing but a leech. Go fuck yourself.

Note the inability to form a coherent sentence, a common element to these types of messages.

Now on to the best of the three. Mr. Fain, below, begins with a tone that seems rational enough, but quickly devolves.

Author : Bill Fain (IP: 173.74.58.10 ,
pool-173-74-58-10.dllstx.fios.verizon.net)
E-mail : fearlessfain@
URL :
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=173.74.58.10
Comment:
All of the men are Patriots and great Americans...But I take take exception to the tone the Seals are treated with. It takes a special breed of man to fast rope into the Taliban infested Hindu Kush Mountains in the dead of night with no support. Compare that to a thousand marching in with a ton of Air Force support. My beef is with any one who writes for the NY Times...wake up Marine, Darrack is probably a slimy, liberal ass-muncher who goes back to NY and belittles the military with his snobby, elitist, faggoty journalist buddies. Oh, he will say some good things to you and put some on paper just to sell some books. That fucking NY times did not even print Mikey Murphy's CMoH story. Murphy is from fucking NY!! Why my hostility?? Darrack calls Luttrell a liar. Who do you believe: The Obama loving Darrack or a fucking living hero!!

Again, thanks to all who are interested in the complete story of Red Wings and Whalers.